Gender Roles In The 1950's

The 1950s was a time of relief and calm for the Americans. After a great depression and a war, many people wanted to live a smooth, easy life. There are many negatives and positives of this “American Dream” life. Gender roles and a growing middle class have some of the most clear roles in this ideal. Both had some negative and some positive effects on the “American Dream”. Starting off with gender roles, and how they played a huge part in the American Dream. These parts shaped people's views on life and how it should be lived. This can be negative because women may be forced into roles they may not want. After the war, many women were forced to give up their jobs to the returning men. Lots of them preferred to stay in the work force and if

Women were also pushed to be extremely feminine so that men can feel more masculine and so they would be better fit to wed. On the other hand, this was positive because many people believed this is what things were supposed to look like. After the war, America wanted to go back to what was normal and women staying at home was normal. Men in the workforce are normal. They wanted to keep the old way of doing things. Women were meant to be stay-at-home moms who do all the housework while men were meant to be the breadwinners. This is what the “American Dream” looked like for them. Moving on to the growing middle class and the negatives it has on the “American Dream”. The rise in poverty is a big issue. It affected many of the more urban areas of the country. The government started to use land that could have had houses there. Instead they placed stadiums, parks, factories etc. Unemployment started to go up again. For these people living in these conditions, they dreamed of the “American Dream”. In contrast, it had a positive effect because suburbs became a lot more popular. The mass production of small houses helped get lots of people out of their financial